1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to a scheme of managing a schedule and, more particularly, to a system and method of managing a schedule which allows a group schedule designating an arbitrary member to be effectively registered and managed.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is common practice that a plurality of people work on a same subject at a same time, such as on a conference, a customer call, an external education course, a business trip, a specific work task, network, and the like. There are many schedules which are not owned by a specific person and which do not have a common relationship other than xe2x80x9cworking togetherxe2x80x9d. In addition, these schedules may be subject to change or cancellation immediately prior to the scheduled event.
However, there is no schedule management apparatus which allows a schedule to be simply input for any plurality of users, and that can simply, through reference to the plurality of users, correctly and simultaneously adjust the multiple schedules. Many schedule management apparatus have to individually record and manage the individual schedules which is time consuming and labor intensive.
In the area relating to these problems, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application (PUPA) 8-22495, PUPA 6-96084 and PUPA 5-61876 exist. PUPA 8-22495 discloses a schedule management scheme which assigns a common ID number to related schedules to allow the related schedules to be managed as a group by retrieving the ID number.
However, it is necessary in this scheme to check all schedules for the same xe2x80x9crelated schedule IDxe2x80x9d when searching schedules which are related to a particular schedule. Consequently, high speed processing is not possible when data is placed in a plurality of locations (servers) or in an environment with a slow data transfer speed such as a wide area network (WAN).
PUPA 8-22495 does not disclose a means for deleting a xe2x80x9crelated schedule IDxe2x80x9d once it is written. Therefore, it is unable to flexibly cope with a user""s request. In addition, because the display status cannot be changed unless all other user schedules are searched for every xe2x80x9crelated schedule IDxe2x80x9d, the number of items to be searched may be abnormally large especially when user""s schedules extend over a plurality of days. This results in a deterioration of performance when changing the display status.
While PUPA 6-96084 also discloses a schedule management scheme for a plurality of users similar to PUPA 8-22495, it produces a common schedule for a plurality of users in a unit which corresponds to a virtual user such as an xe2x80x9corganizationxe2x80x9d and a xe2x80x9crolexe2x80x9d rather than a schedule of individual users.
However, with this approach, a member belonging to an xe2x80x9corganizationxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9crolexe2x80x9d cannot display their individual schedule unless they obtain a schedule which is related to themselves from the common schedule, such as an xe2x80x9corganizationxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9crolexe2x80x9d, and merges them together.
Further, assuming for example, that an event occurs in which a plurality of users having a certain role are supposed to visit a customer but one of them has to be immediately substituted by another user, this scheme can not flexibly cope with such an event because a group of user members such as an organization or a role has to be set-up beforehand in order to prepare a group schedule.
In addition, a problem results when an organizational change or a role change occurs, as this approach is not usable as a schedule LOG because only the schedule of an organization unit or a role unit was erased from the prior schedule hysteresis of the replaced user.
PUPA 6-12378 discloses a technology which allows a schedule for a plurality of persons to be displayed in calendar form at one time and allows the same schedule to be input for a plurality of persons globally. With this technology, a job name, a job code and a name code, etc., are prepared beforehand as a code master. In producing a schedule, an individual schedule is produced if the job name is not input, and, if the job name is input, the schedule is then managed as a job unit.
In this approach, a member cannot display their own schedule unless they obtain a common schedule based on their own xe2x80x9cjob codexe2x80x9d from the xe2x80x9cjob masterxe2x80x9d beside their schedule and merges them together similar to PUPA 6-96084. In addition, a group schedule can not be prepared unless a job master is prepared beforehand.
In preparing a job master, a user of a same job is always assigned a same schedule unless the job master is modified in detail. Further, once a job master has been prepared and put in use, it is virtually impossible to modify the job master because all other schedules which are registered in a same job name are affected.
Further, this scheme cannot cope with the scenario where an alternate member is substituted on short notice to visit a customer in an organization change or a role change.
In view of the foregoing and other problems, disadvantages, and drawbacks of the conventional schedule management systems, the present invention has been devised.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of managing a schedule which allows a group schedule designating an arbitrary member to be effectively registered and managed.
It is another object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which can flexibly cope with a change or a cancellation of a schedule of an entire group or a part thereof.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which can flexibly cope with a change or an addition/deletion of a group member resulting from an organizational change.
It is another object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which can simply change from a group schedule to a normal schedule and vice versa.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which can concurrently hold a group schedule and a normal schedule and be able to distinguish them.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which can quickly update or add/delete a group member.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which synthesizes the information communicated as much as possible, reducing the system load.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a schedule management system which reduces resources required for execution.
By specifying a plurality of arbitrary users and registering a schedule, the schedule is registered for the plurality of users specified. A sum schedule number which the system automatically assigns is then generated and registered in the individual schedules of the plurality of users. The content of the schedule which is assigned a sum schedule number is reflected on the schedule of other users without the users changing the content of their schedule on the scheduler. In addition, by copying a sum schedule number to other users, they can be added as member users. By deleting the sum schedule number, the schedule can be changed to a normal schedule.
This invention also provides a method of displaying a schedule for a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The method includes detecting an operation specifying a plurality of users and indicating a schedule sum, obtaining user identification information which uniquely identifies each of the specified plurality of users, and displaying a sum schedule input area on the display screen to input a common schedule to the specified plurality of users in response to the operation.
The method further includes detecting that schedule information including a schedule starting time and a schedule ending time has been input into the sum schedule input area, generating a sum schedule number corresponding to the schedule information inputted to the sum schedule input area, registering the user identification information of the specified plurality of users in correlation to the sum schedule number, registering schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area as personal schedule information for each of the specified plurality of users and registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information, and displaying a schedule of at least a part of the specified plurality of users based on the personal schedule information of those users.
The expression xe2x80x9coperation specifying a plurality of users and indicating a schedule sumxe2x80x9d refers to an operation of multi-selecting a desired user and clicking a sum icon in a tool bar, an operation of clicking a sum icon in the tool bar with one user being selected and then dragging and dropping another user name on a sum line. Also, the term xe2x80x9csum schedule input areaxe2x80x9d refers to not only the sum line shown in the embodiment to be described later but also to an entry for keyboard entry of schedule information. Further in this specification, the term xe2x80x9cuser identification informationxe2x80x9d may be information sufficiently identifying each user, such as a serial number assigned to a user, a user name and a user address, etc.
This invention provides, in another aspect thereof, a method of displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This method includes obtaining user identification for a plurality of users, displaying a sum schedule input area on a display screen to input a common schedule for specified plurality of users corresponding to the user identification information of a plurality of users, and detecting that the schedule information has been input in the sum schedule input area. Additionally, the method includes generating a sum schedule number corresponding to the schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area to register it in correlation to the user identification information, registering schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area as personal schedule information of each of the specified plurality of users and registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information, and for displaying a schedule of at least a part of the corresponding plurality of users based on the personal schedule information of at least a part of the users.
This invention provides, in another aspect thereof, a method of displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The method includes specifying a first user to register personal schedule information of the first user, specifying personal schedule information of the first user and indicating a schedule sum, generating a sum schedule number corresponding to the personal schedule information of the first user, registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information of the first user, registering the first user identification information of the specified first user in correlation to the sum schedule number, and specifying a second user. Additionally, the method includes registering the user identification information of the specified second user in correlation to the sum schedule number, and for generating personal schedule information of the second user corresponding to the personal schedule information of the first user.
This invention provides, in a still further aspect thereof, a method of displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This method includes changing personal schedule information of a first user, and changing personal schedule information of a second user which is registered in correlation to a sum schedule number, which is registered in correlation to the personal schedule information of the first user, in correlation to the change of the personal schedule information of the first user.
This invention provides, in another aspect thereof, a method of displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This method features specifying a user and displaying a user schedule change input area, detecting that a part of schedule information including a schedule starting time and a schedule ending time has been changed in the user schedule change input area, determining whether or not there exists a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the schedule information, obtaining user identification information registered in correlation to the sum schedule number when it is determined that there exists a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the schedule information, and changing the schedule information corresponding to the correlated registered user identification information in correlation to the change of the schedule information detected in the user schedule change input area.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a schedule management system which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The system includes an event detecting part for detecting an operation to specify user identification information of a plurality of users, a sum schedule input area generating part for generating a sum schedule input area on the display screen for inputting a common schedule to a plurality of users corresponding to the user identification information of the plurality of users, a sum schedule number generating part for generating a sum schedule number corresponding to the schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area, a sum schedule managing table for registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the user identification information of the plurality of users, a user schedule managing table for registering the schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area as personal schedule information of each of the specified plurality of users and registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information, and a display part for displaying a schedule of at least a part of the corresponding plurality of users based on the personal schedule information of at least a part of users.
This invention additionally provides, in a further aspect thereof, a schedule management system which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This system features a user schedule managing table for registering personal schedule information of a first user, an event detecting part for specifying personal schedule information of the first user and indicating a schedule sum, a sum schedule number generating part for generating a sum schedule number corresponding to the personal schedule information of first user, a sum schedule managing table for registering sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information of first user, a table input/output part for registering sum schedule number in the user schedule managing table of specified first user, the event detecting part detecting an operation specifying a second user, the table input/output part registering the user identification information of specified second user in sum schedule managing table in correlation to sum schedule number, and a control part for generating personal schedule information of the second user corresponding to the personal schedule information of first user.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a schedule management system which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This aspect of a schedule management system has an event detecting part for detecting an operation changing personal schedule information of a first user and a control part for changing personal schedule information of a second user which is registered in correlation to a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the personal schedule information of the first user in correlation to the change of the personal schedule information of the first user.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a recording medium storing a schedule management program for displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This program has a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to detect an operation specifying a plurality of users and indicating a schedule sum, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to obtain user identification information which uniquely identifies each of the specified plurality of users, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to display a sum schedule input area on the display screen to input a common schedule to the specified plurality of users in response to the operation, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to detect that schedule information including a schedule starting time and a schedule ending time has been inputted in the sum schedule input area, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to generate a sum schedule number corresponding to the schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register the user identification information of the specified plurality of users in correlation to the sum schedule number, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area as personal schedule information of each of the specified plurality of users and registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information, and a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to display a schedule of at least a part of the specified plurality of users based on the personal schedule information of the at least a part of users.
This invention further provides, in another aspect thereof, a recording medium storing a schedule management program for displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The program includes a program code instructing said schedule management apparatus to obtain user identification of a plurality of users, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to display a sum schedule input area on the display screen to input a common schedule to the specified plurality of users corresponding to the user identification information of a plurality of users, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to detect that the schedule information has been inputted in the sum schedule input area, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to generate a sum schedule number corresponding to the schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area to register it in correlation to the user identification information, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register schedule information inputted in the sum schedule input area as personal schedule information of each of the specified plurality of users and registering the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information, and a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to display a schedule of at least a part of the corresponding plurality of users based on the personal schedule information of the at least a part of users.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a recording medium storing a schedule management program for displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. This program features a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to specify a first user to register personal schedule information of the first user, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to specify personal schedule information of the first user and indicating a schedule sum, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to generate a sum schedule number corresponding to the personal schedule information of the first user, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register the sum schedule number in correlation to the personal schedule information of the first user, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register the first user identification information of the specified first user in correlation to the sum schedule number, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to specify a second user, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to register the user identification information of the specified second user in correlation to the sum schedule number, and a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to generate personal schedule information of the second user corresponding to the personal schedule information of the first user.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a recording medium storing a schedule management program for displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The program has a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to change personal schedule information of a first user, and a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to change personal schedule information of a second user, which is registered in correlation to a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the personal schedule information of the first user, in correlation to the change of the personal schedule information of the first user.
This invention provides, in a further aspect thereof, a recording medium storing a schedule management program for displaying a schedule of at least a part of a plurality of users on a schedule management apparatus which is provided with a display screen and an input device and manages personal schedule information registered for each of the plurality of users. The program schedule management leaving a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to specify a user and displaying a user schedule change input area, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to detect that a part of schedule information including a schedule starting time and a schedule ending time has been changed in the user schedule change input area, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to determine whether or not there exists a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the schedule information, a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to obtain user identification information registered in correlation to the sum schedule number when it is determined that there exists a sum schedule number which is registered in correlation to the schedule information, and a program code instructing the schedule management apparatus to change the schedule information corresponding to the correlatedly registered user identification information in correlation to the change of the schedule information detected in the user schedule change input area.
The present disclosure relates to subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-225822, filed Aug. 10, 1998, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.